On 8 July 2024 a group of students and staff from Tonbridge School, including the Headmaster, will set off for Sri Lanka, to work with our partner charity Child Action Lanka. We are delighted to be visiting as our trip will include an event to mark the formal opening of the CAL Batticaloa Child Development Centre. This vital community centre was built and equipped in 2019 with funding from Tonbridge School. The Centre now supports over 650 children including a pre-school and a playgroup.

As part of this opening ceremony, CAL are keen for their children to be able to perform music and dance, and have set us the challenge of helping to fund and build an open air theatre for the occasion. This will be constructed with local experts with the help of manual work from the Tonbridge boys during their trip. Any funds raised beyond the costs needed will go towards the vital running costs of the Batticaloa Centre.

This formal opening of this Child Development Centre has been delayed by the Easter Day bombings in 2019, Covid and the subsequent financial challenges seen across Sri Lanka. We are delighted that the centre, which has been operational for some time, can now see a formal opening event.

Tonbridge School has worked in partnership with Child Action Lanka since 2015, running regular fundraising events and annual trips with students to work in CAL centres across Sri Lanka.

Batticaloa is situated in the east of Sri Lanka and is home to over 550,000 people. The region has a history marked with significant challenges, including the scars of the 30-year civil war and the Easter bombings of 2019. Batticaloa ranks third out of 25 districts in Sri Lanka in the income poverty index based on the national poverty line.

Across Sri Lanka there are hundreds of vulnerable children in both urban and rural areas – orphans, street children left to fend for themselves, children from poverty-stricken families, and victims of war and conflict. Child Action Lanka (childactionlanka.org ) aims to protect the most disadvantaged children and provide holistic education, health and nutrition promoting their basic needs, rights and interests to enable them, their families and communities to be individuals who bring positive change.

CAL provides Day Care, Pre-school and After school care facilities through Child Development Centres, including meals, educational support, bathing/laundry and life opportunities to children from street and underprivileged circumstances.

For more information, please visit http://www.childactionlanka.org/